Snapchat partners with Perplexity in a $400 million deal to integrate AI search into Snapchat
A quick search can pull you out of Snapchat. With Perplexity built into chat, it seems Snap is trying to keep that flow unbroken.
You know that moment when you're deep in a chat with a friend, swapping jokes or planning something, and someone asks a random question, “Wait, when is that happening again?” or “What does that even mean?” Suddenly, the conversation breaks. You leave Snapchat, open a browser, search for the answer, and maybe… You don’t come back.
And judging by Snap’s latest moves, the company seems to be paying close attention to moments like that. Buried inside its third-quarter results, a quarter where Snapchat added 34 million new daily active users and grew revenue 10% to $1.51 billion, Snap revealed something else: a $400 million deal with Perplexity to pull its AI answer engine directly into Snapchat’s chat interface starting in early 2026. Instead of leaving the app to search, users will get short, sourced explanations right inside the conversation.
That shift aligns with the broader behavioral patterns Snap is observing. On the earnings call, CEO Evan Spiegel pointed out that engagement is moving “from friend stories to content posted on Spotlight.” Users already divide their attention differently, and the numbers reflect that larger picture.
Louis Eriakha
Snapchatters spend roughly 25 to 30 minutes a day on the app, and across the internet, people spend about 145 minutes daily on social platforms, of which nearly an hour of that goes to TikTok alone, according to DataProt.net. With behaviour already drifting, integrating an AI tool inside chat feels like a response designed to help keep conversations active, or at least uninterrupted.
It’s also a practical move for a company that finally has some momentum again. Snap’s growth this quarter came partly from improving advertising performance and giving the community “more ways to communicate,” according to Spiegel. Making Perplexity available directly inside chat fits that pattern. Right now, chats rely on people searching elsewhere whenever a question pops up. With Perplexity, those answers stay inside the app, a small but meaningful change in how conversations flow.
Snap’s framing of the deal also hints at a larger ambition. Spiegel described the integration as a step toward making “AI-powered discovery native to Snapchat” and positioning the platform as a “distribution channel for intelligent agents.” The shareholder letter reinforces it: this Perplexity deal may just be the start of “a broader ecosystem of AI partners.”
And the direction becomes clearer when you place it alongside what Snap already had. MyAI, its chatbot built with models from OpenAI, Google, and soon Perplexity, was useful, but it never sat at the centre of how people actually used Snapchat. It was a conversational tool parked off to the side, something you could open if you wanted a quick chat. The AI search feature with Perplexity would function differently. Instead of living in its own corner, it plugs real-time, sourced answers directly into chat. It meets users where they already are, supporting active conversations and adding utility without changing the flow of the app.
In the wider industry, the approach feels more focused. Meta and X rolled out broad AI chatbots of their own, Meta across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook, and X with Grok for all users. It isn’t turning the whole interface into an AI hub. Instead, Perplexity slips into one very specific part of the app: the place where people talk to each other.
And as Snap prepares new features like “AI Clips,” tools for generating shareable videos from prompts, and a new version of its AR Specs hardware, the company is clearly experimenting with how people create, watch, and respond to content.
Louis Eriakha
While Snap’s fourth-quarter revenue outlook of $1.68–$1.71 billion signals steady confidence, the main story here may be the subtle ways the company is trying to keep people engaged by removing small reasons to drift away.
